Elevated Utopias by Anoli Perera

Elevated Utopias I : See No Evil We started raising our boundary walls somewhere some time… Inside these high walled parameters happiness is sought immersed in the virtual world of the internet and satellite TVs. Closed-circuit cameras assure us our safe existence and the outside is surveyed from the safety of an insular ‘interior.’ Contentment […]

Elevated Utopias I : See No Evil

We started raising our boundary walls somewhere some time… Inside these high walled parameters happiness is sought immersed in the virtual world of the internet and satellite TVs. Closed-circuit cameras assure us our safe existence and the outside is surveyed from the safety of an insular ‘interior.’ Contentment resides on elements such as gated communities, new elevated highways, designer shops and spruced up cities with manicured gardens and ponds, a proud compendium of contemporary heritage put together by questionable regimes. Social disorganization, economic degradation, inhumanity, abuse of power and political chaos are camouflaged or made invisible within hyper-real scenes of contemporary heritage. Road rollers become the great leveler of all, literally and metaphorically, which clear the way for the so called ‘development’, a questionable process in its current form privileged above humanism and civic ethics.
In our comfort zones and elevated utopias we see no evil, we hear no evil and we speak no evil.

Elevated Utopias II: A Blip in the Celestial Pond

The celestial pond, ‘Anothaththa Vila’ that gives life to all planes of existence is churned and disturbed by the urges to enmesh wealth and power in the name of development, conflict, terrorism and war. Wars and conflicts become someone’s pain and another’s gain. Development becomes facades for amassing power and wealth for a few while providing an illusion of elevated existence for some others. Disconnected and distanced from the realities of life amidst the chaos of the rubble-filled exterior world, we wait for the Road Roller to clear the way for our elevated utopias. We wait for the garden cities and lotus ponds to emerge while the crows dig into the garbage underneath.